


Small Intimacies

by afteriwake



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Attentive Jack Robinson, Caring Jack, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Food Poisoning, Forehead Kisses, Mild Hurt/Comfort, POV Phryne Fisher, Sick Character, Sick Phryne Fisher, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 14:33:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13343241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: When Phryne gets struck with food poisoning, Jack takes care of her.





	Small Intimacies

**Author's Note:**

> This is a (very very) belated Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries Secret Santa fic for **phrynesforeheadkisses**! I got it back from my beta earlier in the week but due to RL issues, I've only just been able to post it. I hope you enjoy.

She was not really one in a position to have her forehead kissed. It was something she did to others to show she was pleased, or she cared, but it wasn’t often someone did it for her. Not since her mother, and that had been before Janey had been taken. Afterward, physical affection was a bit...lacking...in her household, at least towards her.

Not that she ever thought her mother and father didn’t love her, never that. Or at least, never that with her mother. Her father was only one to show physical affection towards her mother, the love of his life. But she found her mother pulled away, almost as though she was afraid to get close to her, that she might lose her as well and then where would she be? A mother with no daughters, that’s where.

She understood, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt. But she got physical affection in other ways. Arms thrown round shoulders and being pulled close by Mac. Random physical interludes with random men. Kissing the foreheads of those nearest and dearest to her. Hugs and kisses in return. Physical affection was never limited from Phryne because she knew just how important it could be, just how needed and _wanted_ it could be.

But there were some acts of intimacy never really given to her, and a kiss on the forehead was one of them.

At least, until today.

She’d woke up feeling nauseous. She wasn’t late and she knew there was no earthly way it was morning sickness, so there was that at least. She tried to think about what she had eaten during the day before that might have set her stomach off, but before the word “oysters” flittered into her mind she was tossing the covers back onto her partner and rushing to the washroom. Jack hadn’t touched them so, of course, _he_ wasn’t fighting her for space at the toilet, but it wasn’t long after she had heaved her stomach contents in a bowl that she felt a cold wet washcloth being pressed onto her hand.

“I imagine the oysters were a bad idea,” Jack said, his voice not even a bit teasing. Good. She hadn’t had sickness due to food for a long time but she remembered it was a distinctly unappealing process. Teasing might have caused the attempted murder of a police detective.

“No,” she got out as another wave of nausea rolled through her stomach. She bent her head down again and waited, but she seemed to have expelled all of the contents of her stomach. She took the cloth and wiped her mouth before looking up at Jack. “I’m sorry I woke you.”

“I was already awake,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulders and rubbing gently. “I’m an early riser, remember?”

“How could I forget?” she said, giving him a wan smile. That was something they’d had to negotiate in the steps after their relationship changed, one of many. But he seemed content to hold her as she slept until he had to rise, and she often found a note from him telling her to join him at the station when she finally awoke, delivered by Mr. Butler. It was a sense of routine she found she didn’t mind in the slightest, surprisingly.

“Why don’t we get you into bed again?” he said. “We can keep a rubbish bin by your side of the bed and I’ll see if Mr. Butler can get you some plain, dry toast.”

“Does that actually work?” she asked, her smile widening a bit.

“Tried and true cure from my mother,” he said with his own smile in return.

She looked at her pyjamas to make sure she hadn’t expelled the contents of her stomach on them, and once she was sure she hadn’t, she let Jack help her up. She didn’t _need_ his help walking to her bedroom but it felt nice to have his arm around her waist, and it felt even nicer to lean into him and smell the scent that was uniquely Jack Robinson. Once they made it to the bedroom he gestured to the bed. “Tucking me in?” she asked.

“All part of the recovery,” he said.

She slipped into bed and he put the quilt back over her, as she hadn’t gotten under the sheets. He tucked the quilt in around her a bit and then leaned over, kissing her forehead. She shut her eyes, savoring the feel of his warm lips on her clammy forehead, and almost whimpered when he pulled them away. “You’ll be back soon?” she asked.

“With toast,” he said. “Today I am all yours.”

Her eyes flew open. “Jack Robinson, there’s a case!” she protested.

“And Collins can handle it quite well with Mrs. Collins,” Jack said. “You’re ill and I’m going to take care of you. No arguments.”

“The killer--”

“Can be caught by Collins. It will do him well in the long run anyway. There’s a promotion to Detective in the works, and Collins’s name is being passed around for the promotion.” He carefully sat next to her. “It’s been a long time since I’ve gotten to take care of someone I care for. Allow me the pleasure?”

“It won’t be a pleasure, Jack,” Phryne said.

“You’d be surprised,” Jack said with a small smile, leaning forward to give her another forehead kiss. “Now. Toast and weak tea?”

“Very well,” she said, deciding not to argue. If he thought nursing her back to health would be a pleasurable experience she’d simply disabuse him of the notion _after_ he got her something to settle her stomach. For the moment, she would simply stay snug as a bug in bed and savor the small instances of intimacy she’d gotten today, brief moments where she felt that truly, Jack did love her more than either of them would ever willingly admit.

And she was quite pleased because she also loved him more than either of them would willingly admit, so perhaps that was for the best.


End file.
